But I'm so much cuter!

The majority of women first entering institutions of higher learning were met “…with a mixture of condescension, ridicule, and derision in differing measures” (Peril College Girl 27). Considering these spaces were run and populated by white males, from the beginning the college girl has had to work to gain male approval. This male approval signified acceptance by the university population; however, the requirements for gaining this acceptance were determined by the male population and not the female students themselves. While these women were seeking higher education, they were still expected to adhere to the tenets of Pink Think, or “…a set of ideas and attitudes about what constitutes proper female behavior” (Peril Pink Think 7). This happens especially within sororities. Groups of women are determined based on predominantly superficial impressions and her degree of adhere to “proper female behavior” (Peril Pink Think 7).
A historical hot bed of Pink Think lies in the Greek system on college campuses. In sororities, women may be chosen based on “Looks, wealth, bloodlines, connections, dates, friends – all of these can be major factors when sororities are deciding on which new members to accept” (Robbins Pledged 114). By women determining themselves based on these somewhat superficial categories, men are granted validation when using these distinctions to decide which women are worthwhile. Typically on campus “…a sorority’s standing among fraternity brothers often determines its status in the Greek system. Sororities resemble high school cliques, vying for the attention of the most attractive boys to boost their standing among the popular girls” (Robbins 51). To gain a significant status, sorority women must live up to the male expectation of what a college woman is: sexy, but doesn’t sleep around too much; and of course not too smart.

A sorority girl’s appearance and sex appeal is extremely important to her popularity. Just the right amount of sex appeal earns her approval from a male audience as well as jealous friendships with other sorority sisters. On a night out at a bar, sorority sisters danced provocatively with one another as fraternity brothers observed: “The brothers who were starting to trickle in sat on couches that ringed the dance floor and peered at the girls gyrating scandalously with each other” (Robbins 76). Amy, one of the sorority women focused on in the novel Pledged, complains to her friend Jake that her love interest, Spencer, is supposedly dating someone else. Amy quickly asserts her superiority to this other girl by exclaiming that she is “…so much cuter!” (Robbins 94).

Even exclusive relationships between sorority women and fraternity brothers can be a source of tensions and a way to determine a sorority’s standing. Brooke, a sorority woman mentioned several times in the novel, is ostracized by her sorority sisters for dating a fraternity brother belonging to a fraternity deemed the “loser” frat. Even our fictitious sorority girl heroine, Elle Woods, must assure a fellow Delta Nu sister that although her fiancé does not belong to a fraternity he is still “totally letter worthy”.

Sororities were created to be spaces where women can develop their personalities and talents while forging lasting friendships with other women and contributing to philanthropies and charitable causes. Unfortunately, it seems that sororities can be a master’s tool: pitting women against each other while they vie for male attention and approval.

-Irene Davidson